RailEnquiry

VIJAYAWADA: Special trains to Sabarimala are not running on time, causing inconvenience to Ayyappa devotees. Hundreds of pilgrims are being made to wait for several hours in the railway stations in the chilly winter as no special train is running as per schedule. Piling on their agony, the railway authorities are also not providing any information about the status of the special trains.It is entirely a different matter that the railways is pocketing huge sums by running specials to Sabarimala as all the trains are packed with devotees. Taking objection to the callous attitude of the railway authorities, the passengers staged a dharna at the railway station on Saturday.The passengers protested when the Kakinada-Kollam special train which was scheduled to arrive at Vijayawada at 1.50 am, did not reach even by 10.30 am. The authorities, who kept the passengers waiting for several hours in the station, maintained a stoic silence without announcing at least the revised schedule.According to information, almost all the special trains announced by the South Central Railway for Sabarimala tour were running late by not less than 10-12 hours. Sources said the railway authorities were keeping the special trains in loopline to allow free passage to the regular super fast and express trains leaving the devotees in the lurch.The special train left Kakinada town at 2.10 am last Thursday, nearly four hours behind schedule right at the originating point.As per the original schedule it would have left Kakinada at 10.30pm on Wednesday and reached Vijayawada around 2am on Thursday.However, the train reached Vijayawada at 7 am, nearly five hours late.In normal conditions, any express train would cover the delay at least by 30 minutes to one hour after running for about 3-4 hours. Surprisingly, the special train was delayed by another hour by the time it reached Vijayawada on Thursday.Lack of locker facility and other amenities for the surging passengers at the railway stations is another cause for concern. As per their custom, Ayyappa devotees have to take bath after every visit to the toilet. "There are several difficulties devotees are having to face," a devotee Kantha Rao Swamy said.The special train, which started at Kakinada on Thursday, reached its destination by 36 hours late, according to a railway source. It went on adding a delay of an hour for every 3-4 hours journey as it was late by nearly six hours by the time it reached Renigunta and eight hours late when it crossed the last station in AP - Chittoor.